The Christian Science Monitor report would seem to add evidence to support earlier reports and TRC assessments (see August 17 WAR Report and the October 5 WAR Report) of a potentially reinvigorated presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan . The report?s description of increasingly active al-Qaeda and Taliban elements in the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal borderlands?where al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, are thought to be hiding?would seem to indicate that the area remains a quasi base of operations and staging area for cross-border attacks. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, ??Afghan officials in the three provinces that border Waziristan?say the frequency and sophistication of cross-border attacks have actually increased.?

Particularly concerning are both the reported establishment in Pakistan?s tribal borderlands of recruiting offices for jihad against the Pakistan army and US forces in Afghanistan and the reports of increasing numbers of Uzbek and Chechen fighters in the area and that Arab fighters are leading cross-border attacks.